NEW IDEAS WITH NUKE WASTE - Part 3:
So far, no one has cast ceramic containers large enough to hold bundles of spent nuclear fuel rods. Engineers at Nucon hope to do this, although its model is about the size of half a large watermelon. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a panel established by Congress, said that early plans for Yucca had included a ceramic covering over the metal, but this subsequently was rerated from a handling perspective. Yet, anti-corrosion attributes cf metal remain attractive.
Some experts say no to ceramics and yes to concrete for this purpose. Yet the Yucca project's technical lead for waste package design and testing, says no finaldecisions had been made and that the design of the containers so far was "conceptual." Currently the Energy Dept is going for metal because of track record rather than for experimental material. Materials performance over time and environment, of manufacture and fabrication are the positives regarded
Ceramics are used to stabilize high-level nuclear waste, but only as a matrix material, not as a wrapper.
ENDS3.Next - New Materials.

VOLCANIC HAZARD AT PROPOSED YUCCA MOUNTAIN NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY GREATER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
UK expert report in from American Geophysical Union.link:--
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020801075418.htm